Len Shackleton, IEA Editorial and Research Fellow, has written for The New Statesman on the government’s plan to scrap 91,000 civil service jobs.

While this cut will bring a welcome saving of £3.5 billion, Len argues that this pales in comparison to the growth of the state in recent years and that the government should focus on fundamentally rethinking the role of the civil service.

“Furthermore, £3.5bn is a drop in the ocean. Government spending last year was more than £1 trillion. And perhaps the planned 91,000 jobs to be chopped should be seen against the 5.7 million currently employed in the public sector as a whole (and millions more in jobs substantially funded by the government, such as large parts of the railways and the numerous quangos that David Cameron once wanted to make a bonfire out of).”